Matt Hancock….

I’m not an early riser. It was DH that told me. Pity Kay blotted her copy book because she’s very good at asking awkward questions. Hancock must be feeling the pressure though because when I have seen him interviewed by Kay in the past it’s usually quite good natured.

I missed that MayBee, I often watch Kay Burley but we've got the builders in and the chaos means I didn't see any news this morning.

He must be feeling the pressure if he's being rude.

Hancock was downright rude to Kay Burley on Sky this morning refusing to answer what he called rubbish questions. Has obviously ran out of lies with which to answer said questions.

NotSpaghetti

I don’t think she’d have been allowed our masks worriedwell as they were reusable.… But I had no idea the NHS (disposable) type would not be readily available for NHS staff. It was shocking to see the shortages. And had my daughter been doing what yours was, I would have been frantic with worry for her. The way the PPE was unavailable/rationed was disgraceful.
I feel rather mean now for having both bought them and raising it here to be honest, worried - and some of my family said I was “over the top” at the time - but the point is that ordinary people could see an unfolding disaster yet the government say no-one knew.

Then of course the government takes the credit for the vaccine which is fair enough in that they simply threw money at it. Because they had someone who actually knew about procurement we bought loads and loads of everything going and we’re ok. The PPE was another matter - idiots were in charge of that and they quibbled over price and bought rubbish too late.

We need to learn from this now, not in another century!

Don't feel bad, you were doing the best for your family. My DIL worked all through on a covid ward, my son worked on a long stay ward which eventually became overrun with covid and he caught it. Fortunately he hasn't gone on to develop long covid but he isn't local so I couldn't see him and he is my baby and I was very worried. All of mine fully vaccinated now so I feel a bit less anxious.

Given the responses on GN of many govt supporters Maizie I think that the PPE mess will be forgotten unless they are occasionally reminded of that and other c--k ups.

The PPE was another matter - idiots were in charge of that and they quibbled over price and bought rubbish too late.

It wasn't just a matter of price quibbling; they actually ignored long established UK PPE suppliers, who were clamouring to supply, in favour of their cronies and tory donors, with no PPE supply experience at all, who then purchased the rubbish at highly inflated prices... This is not forgotten, however much the government tries to rewrite history...

growstuff I remember those threads on here about howItalians were badly hit as they all lived in small apartments with their grannies and didn’t have proper toilets. I was furious as I have relatives in the worst hit region of Italy which is nothing like this description. A few weeks later our death rate was the highest in Europe.

Hi..my extended family & friends are mostly EU countries and US ..?

I don’t think she’d have been allowed our masks worriedwell as they were reusable.… But I had no idea the NHS (disposable) type would not be readily available for NHS staff. It was shocking to see the shortages. And had my daughter been doing what yours was, I would have been frantic with worry for her. The way the PPE was unavailable/rationed was disgraceful.
I feel rather mean now for having both bought them and raising it here to be honest, worried - and some of my family said I was “over the top” at the time - but the point is that ordinary people could see an unfolding disaster yet the government say no-one knew.

Then of course the government takes the credit for the vaccine which is fair enough in that they simply threw money at it. Because they had someone who actually knew about procurement we bought loads and loads of everything going and we’re ok. The PPE was another matter - idiots were in charge of that and they quibbled over price and bought rubbish too late.

We need to learn from this now, not in another century!

I think the reason Boris was so quick to procure massive amounts of vaccine is because they made such a hash of the first and second lockdown they had to redeem themselves somehow! Now he's trying to take all the credit while the NHS works flat out to administer it.
Unfortunately people often have short memories and gratitude for the vaccine may result in them forgiving the Tories' failings!
I don't have much respect for Cummings but I'm glad he's dishing the dirt as we need to know the truth, whatever the source. Hopefully all the evidence will be forthcoming eventually.

Still they did their best, shame their best wasn't better.

Good planning NotSpaghetti, I wish I'd done the same. My DIL couldn't get one from the NHS and she was frontline on a covid ward, holding people up in her arms as they said goodbye to their families on ipads.

Of course there were no shortages...............

I also was in contact with someone in Italy. They couldn’t believe what we were doing over here.
I’d already bought all our family N95 face masks before we shut down here… and not to do enamelling or sanding either…

Yes I remember all that,stuff too!

@growstuff that is crazy.

theworriedwell

Lucca I was speaking to someone in Italy in Feb/March last year, not a friend it was a business thing but he kept asking me why we weren't doing anything, couldn't we see what was happening in Italy.

I don't understand why people keep talking about hindsight unless Johnson has totally mesmerized them.

Don't forget that we could see what was happening in Italy, but that was because those pesky Italians all live in multi-generation households and hug and kiss each other. It couldn't happen in the UK. Oh no! we're British and exceptional!

If the search facility on GN were better, I could find some threads where exactly those kind of views were expressed.

MaizieD

^he did his best, no-one knew this was coming^

"No one saw this coming"! I could scream with frustration every time I see this statement. The 'world' has known for years that there was the possibility of another global pandemic. We've had a number of scares in the last few decades. We've had SARS, MERS, Ebola, avian flu, swine flu.. all possible candidates for starting a global pandemic.

Emergency planning is a government task and until the tories and flipping Brexit took charge that's what our governments have done, planned for emergencies such as a global pandemic.

At the turn of the century the UK's global pandemic planning was reckoned to be among the best in the world, but owing to their obsession with cutting public spending, privatising the NHS and dealing with Brexit the tories let it all slide. Maybee reminded us of 'operation cygnus'. a big rehearsal of putting pandemic planning into operation in 2017. Many shortcomings were reported as a result but the tory government did nothing to correct them.

I am baffled as to what people expect of governments. It should be clear that one of their tasks is to ensure the safety and welfare of the nation's citizens. That they were totally unprepared and in panic mode indicates a massive failure of their duty of care. They failed to do their job.

I must stop calling it cygnet!

Lucca I was speaking to someone in Italy in Feb/March last year, not a friend it was a business thing but he kept asking me why we weren't doing anything, couldn't we see what was happening in Italy.

I don't understand why people keep talking about hindsight unless Johnson has totally mesmerized them.

he did his best, no-one knew this was coming

"No one saw this coming"! I could scream with frustration every time I see this statement. The 'world' has known for years that there was the possibility of another global pandemic. We've had a number of scares in the last few decades. We've had SARS, MERS, Ebola, avian flu, swine flu.. all possible candidates for starting a global pandemic.

Emergency planning is a government task and until the tories and flipping Brexit took charge that's what our governments have done, planned for emergencies such as a global pandemic.

At the turn of the century the UK's global pandemic planning was reckoned to be among the best in the world, but owing to their obsession with cutting public spending, privatising the NHS and dealing with Brexit the tories let it all slide. Maybee reminded us of 'operation cygnus'. a big rehearsal of putting pandemic planning into operation in 2017. Many shortcomings were reported as a result but the tory government did nothing to correct them.

I am baffled as to what people expect of governments. It should be clear that one of their tasks is to ensure the safety and welfare of the nation's citizens. That they were totally unprepared and in panic mode indicates a massive failure of their duty of care. They failed to do their job.

It isn’t a case of supporting Cummings or Hancock. It’s down to finding the truth, which is something sadly lacking with this government. Probably a case of who gains the most from exposing the truth: not for the electorate but for themselves.

And Boris Johnson doing the "Captain Hindsight" thing is so bloody childish. He needs to grow up and take a bit of responsibility. There is blood on his hands and on Hancock's.

LuckyFour

You'd rather support Cummings than Hancock?
I can't stand Cummings, he's a self-serving, unkind, dreadful person. I prefer to believe Hancock - he did his best, no-one knew this was coming and how dreadful it was going to be. All very easy with hindsight!

Not hindsight for goodness sake. I had a friend In italy who was texting daily asking what our government was waiting for to lockdown, so how come the,government didn’t know ??? It’s because Johnson didn’t want to, because he didn’t get it, bragging about shaking hands with people and letting huge gatherings go ahead because he didn’t want to lose popularity.
This “ oh it’s easy with hindsight” argument is nonsense.

I'm so fed up with the hindsight thing. People, me included, were crying out for lockdown last year when the govt let Cheltenham go ahead, Crufts, big pop concerts. The FA called off matches showing the govt a lead and eventually they did something. It wasn't hindsight, well it was for the govt but not for many of us.

Sending people out of hospitals to care homes was something else we knew was wrong without hindsight. Homes were being forced to take people in to "honour" contracts when they knew it was a disaster in the making.

How about fighting with London boroughs and making them stay open for the last week of term in December not to mention schools going back for a day in January. How many people were trying to stop it, saying it was wrong and Williamson threatening them with legal action.

Please can we stop with the hindsight nonsense.

How many times do we have to say the threat of a pandemic was ignored by this government. Check out operation cygnet.

You'd rather support Cummings than Hancock?
I can't stand Cummings, he's a self-serving, unkind, dreadful person. I prefer to believe Hancock - he did his best, no-one knew this was coming and how dreadful it was going to be. All very easy with hindsight!